


Don't say no no no no no

by EponineTheStrange (gallifreyandglowclouds)



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 04:10:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/832568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallifreyandglowclouds/pseuds/EponineTheStrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karen and Matt have been secretly married for a while. They wear their wedding rings on a chain around their necks. The paparazzi force them to confess the marriage when one or both of them accidentally have their necklaces hanging out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't say no no no no no

Matt proposes to Karen in Central Park when they go to New York for another non-work related trip. She laughs a little, cries a little, and then says yes. 

They get home, though, and it turns out that planning a wedding kind of sucks and is expensive, and Matt and Karen aren’t really sure they want a big white wedding anyways. 

Basically, an entire weekend of rumination culminates in a visit to the register office with all the relevant documentation the next Monday, and they’re told that they have to wait fifteen days to get married and also come up with two witnesses. 

“Well,” Karen says, “at least that gives us time to pick out rings.” 

Arthur and Ines end up being their witnesses, and he still thinks that they’re idiots for not telling anyone, but he goes along with it, because though Arthur is endlessly sensible he lets Matt and Karen get up to Matt and Karen things, which Karen always appreciates.  

The day after the wedding, when Karen has switched from hooray-I’m-married mode to I’m-married-now-what mode, she realises that their secret marriage is going to be found out in no time if they go around with rings on their hands. 

Plus, they have to figure out other things too, like telling their families that they just eloped. That’ll be an interesting conversation. 

Matt comes in to the kitchen with his wedding ring on a gold chain around his neck.

“Aha,” Karen says, “you’re a genius.” 

Of course, he has another one, and she puts her engagement ring and her wedding ring on it. 

“I figured that it’s relatively easily hidden,” Matt says, “but always close to your heart.” 

“That’s cheesy, but also adorable.” 

“You know, Ms. Gillan,” Matt says, (and no, she didn’t change her name but he left that up to her because that’s a thing that they’re allowed to do), “I have practically made a career out of being those two things.” 

She smiles at him, and then he sits down at their kitchen table with her as she eats her toast, and he stares at her and grins. 

“I’m not that sexy when I’m eating,” she says between bites of Nutella. 

“You are sexy and beautiful and wonderful and awesome all the time,” Matt says, leaning in and kissing her on the forehead. “I probably wouldn’t have married you otherwise.” 

* * *

Married life for them proves to be exactly the same as unmarried life - they spend a ridiculous amount of time apart when they’re working, and there’s a reason that Karen kept that flat in Los Angeles because they tend to be there, though not at the same time doing movies and television shows. 

Matt’s been dialling the overseas stuff back as of late, as is she, because they’ve both talked about wanting to start a family and settle down, and that’s not really going to work out if they’re consistently on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. 

Almost six months after the wedding, she’s finishing up her latest thing in Los Angeles, and she’s seriously missing Matt, and then she gets an e-mail from Arthur that blows everything up a little bit. 

It’s a link to pictures in the Daily Mail of Matt out buying groceries with the wedding ring around his neck, but not tucked in, with the caption  _Who is the Doctor’s Wife?_

Her first observation is that Matt hasn’t been on  _Who_ for eighteen months and still that’s the only thing that people know him for, which is probably going to annoy him to no end. 

Her next thought is  _shit, it’s out._ Suddenly, the whole let’s-get-married-in-secret idea is proving to be absolutely terrible, because though it saved them the headache that is planning a wedding, it’s going to cause a ton of drama with family and now, Karen’s regretting ever bringing it up to Matt. 

It makes her feel queasy, and she just makes it to the bathroom before she vomits. 

Afterwards, she forwards Arthur’s e-mail to Matt without anything else in the body of the message. 

He replies about ten minutes later with  _You’re coming home in a couple days, right? Let’s talk about it then._

* * *

The paparazzi are fiercer than normal when she gets her taxi after landing at Heathrow, and Karen honestly wants to hurt something, but she takes a deep breath and gets in to the cab, which speeds off.  

He’s waiting for her on the couch of their house when she gets in, and he leaps up and grabs her suitcase from her. After he puts it upstairs, he runs back down the stairs and wraps her in a very, very tight hug. 

They sit down across from each other, her on the couch and him on his favourite armchair. 

“What do we do, Matt?” She asks, because that’s the question that’s been eating her up inside since she got that e-mail from Arthur. 

“Well,” he says, “we could lie to the paparazzi about it, and watch them do their digging and try to get a copy of the marriage certificate or something to prove that we’re lying, or we just come out and say it, and the media frenzy will be nuts for a while, but then it might go away.” He takes a deep breath, and says, “I think I like the second option better.” 

She puts her head in her hands, because either way, they’re sacrificing this little private thing that they have, and because the world kind of freaked out when the two of them got together, she cannot imagine how people will react when the revelation that they’re married comes out. 

“What do you think we should do?” Matt asks, and she both likes and hates that he’s leaving the final decision up to her. 

“Let’s call our families tonight,” Karen says, “and then we can tell the world tomorrow.” 

Matt nods, and hands her the phone. He grabs his cell and starts dialling. 

They end up talking to their parents for nearly two hours, respectively. Karen’s parents aren’t angry, really, just surprised, and quite convinced that she’s pregnant. (She might be, but that’s a different story for a different day.) 

“No,” Karen says, “we just didn’t want to do a big ceremony and stuff, and then it just happened. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you guys.” 

“Well, hopefully we can have some kind of ceremony,” Karen’s mom says. “I’ll talk to Lynne about it.” 

She feels compelled to ask since when are her mother and Matt’s mother on a first name basis, but just does not want to go there. 

Matt’s mother gives him a way harder time, but the conversation ends much the same way - there will be a ceremony. 

“You’ll need a white dress after all,” Matt says, sighing. 

Karen shrugs and smiles. “Well, you’ll need a kilt.” He didn’t wear a kilt to the ceremony at the register’s office - just a suit. She had a red dress on, which probably has some kind of negative symbolism there but she doesn’t want to think about it. 

They cuddle on the couch for a while, then go to bed. 

* * *

Karen decides to tweet the announcement, because Matt is stupid and doesn’t have Twitter, and plus, they aren’t going to go book a slot on a TV show. 

“It’s the way of the future, Matt,” Karen says, a new tweet open on her laptop. He watches her as she types. 

@KarenGillan2: so a week or so ago my dear boyfriend got papped with a ring on a chain around his neck

@KarenGillan2: and a lot of people had questions about it for me 

@KarenGillan2: so here is your answer: matt and i got married about six months ago and we didn’t tell anyone 

@KarenGillan2: but now we have told the world, and here is a picture of the rings to prove it

The next thing that she tweets is a picture of her and Matt with their rings out. 

“It’s not quite a save the date, Kazza,” he says. 

“Well, I think our mothers are going to take care of that for us,” Karen says. 

They crash Twitter. 

“Oops,” Karen says, when she sees the fail whale. Matt gives her a high five. 

People send many congratulatory messages, but her two favourite responses are from Mark and Arthur. 

@RattyBurvil: I KNEW IT! @KarenGillan2 and Matt have been secretly married for ages, yet no one believed me.

@Markgatiss: @KarenGillan2 I wasn’t aware that it was legal for giraffes and moons to get married. Congratulations nonetheless. 

* * *

They end up having their white wedding in Edinburgh as some kind of geographical compromise brokered between the mothers. Matt wears a kilt and Karen wears a short white dress. It’s ridiculous and wonderful and early the next morning, as they’re taking a break from enjoying their second wedding night, she asks Matt, “Is there a reason we didn’t just do this the first time?” 

“Obviously we wanted to wear our rings on necklaces like cool people,” Matt says, kissing the top of Karen’s head. He rests a hand on top her stomach, and asks, “When do we tell them about this? In about two months it’ll be a lot harder to hide than some wedding rings.” 

“Oh, we’ll figure it out,” Karen says. 

 


End file.
